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Kyrgyzstan casts votes for Parliament

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The nation voted Sunday in a parliamentary election that has been at least partially tainted by the exclusion of some opposition politicians from the ballot.

Voting for one of the 75 seats up for grabs was postponed for two weeks because a roadblock installed by demonstrators protesting the disqualification of candidates made it impossible to deliver ballots on time, the Central Elections Commission announced. The roadblock was removed on Saturday

The election is being closely watched as an indication of whether Kyrgyzstan is pursuing democracy or backing off a path that has distinguished it from most of the former states of Soviet Central Asia over the past 15 years.

The election also is expected to foreshadow how the presidential election scheduled for later this year will be conducted. President Askar Akayev is prevented by the Constitution from seeking a third term, but opposition forces have suggested that this vote could be manipulated to ensure a compliant Parliament that would then amend the Constitution to allow him to run again.

Akayev denied that he wanted another term, saying after the voting Sunday that "I have not had, and do not have, intentions to change the constitution."

"Pro-government candidates had huge advantages," she added, such as biased coverage in state-run media. A former ambassador to the United States and once a United Nations envoy in Georgia, she was disqualified under a law that says candidates must have been resident in Kyrgyzstan for at least the previous five years. Several other former diplomats also were disqualified and critics say Akayev has used diplomatic postings as a way of marginalizing his opponents.

Akayev, meanwhile, has accused his opposition of "disrespecting" the law and of trying to start a revolution with the help of foreigners. Those accusations echo Russian complaints that American and European groups fomented political change in Ukraine and Georgia.

Tajikistan also goes to polls

People were also voting Sunday in Tajikistan, in parliamentary elections that pit a fledgling opposition against the powerful ruling party of President Emomali Rakhmonov.

Critics accuse Rakhmonov, who came to power during the former Soviet satellite's civil war of the 1990s, of stifling dissent, among other things. They assert that a referendum two years ago that gave Rakhmonov the right to stay in power until 2020 threatens Tajikistan's stability and hopes for democracy.

Six parties are contesting 63 seats in Parliament's lower house.Rakhmonov's National Democratic Party is widely expected to keep its majority.